expansion and change of rural settlements in traditional agricultural regions based on village investigation in pingdu county.pdf

ansion and Change of Rural Settlements in Traditional Agricultural Regions：Based on Village Investigation in Pingdu County Dong Dekunl”，Lu Jinpin91”，Gu Shuzhon91 1．Institute ofGeographical Sciences and Natural Resources Research，ChineseAcademy of Sciences，Beijing 100101，China 2．Graduate University of Chinese Academy of Sciences．Beijing 100101．China Abstract：The mral seRlcments accounted for a great proportion of overall building land in China，but it still expanded in recent years along with urbanization and gradually decreasing rural population．To explore the reason for this phenomenon，all analy· sis has been made based on the investigation in a traditional agri· cultural region．This study found that socioeconomic factors，in- chding the scale of families and its quantity,the improvement of rural public infrastructure，the change of population and the pres— sure of arable land,have effects on the expansion．The view 011 land tenure which has shaped in farmers minds in the long haul makes them dispose their houses cautiously,and this was the main cause of the fact that one household own more than one plot．In addition，the limitations of rural land institution are unconducive to inspiriting the transfer of farmers’building land and redevel- opment ofthe idle housing land． Key words：rural settlements，housing land,expansion and change，land use，rural 1 Introduction Inllabitancy is one of the basic conditions of humans’ living．Under the institution of collective property right．勰 a member of the collectivity,it se它ms to be an inherent right to get a plot for building a house．Along with the con- tinuous development of socio．economy,the increase in farmers’income and the advance of urbanization，the gross of rural population has stepped into the drop—ofr stage from the sustaining increase stage．Although the central and lo- cal governments have increased the intensity to trim land in recent years．the gross area of Rlral settlements is still mounting up．Relative research shows that current rural settlements in China have major problems such as lagging village planning，scattered distribution，imperfect infra- structure，low—degree intensive land use．having unused houses and land，land-use waste，continuously expanding housing land scale，exceeding land-use limit，management difficulty,etc．(Xing，1994；Lu 2005；Zhang，2006；Chen, 2007；Lin．2007)．111e potential of rural building land trim is very huge．Based on the result of SILrVey in 1996．1 277 million ha residentialland can be trimmed in China．If one third was trimmed into arable land．4．26 million ha would be added(ye and Wu．1 998)．At present。arable land re- source is very rare in China．On the one hand，the new raised buildings in rural areas will occupy a lot of arable land inevitably；and on the other hand．10ts of land is left unused in rural area$．so the waste of land-tlsc cannot be ignored． Along with socio-economic development，farmers’in- come level will be raised gradually,and the living style including habitation also greatly changes．For example， from l 978 to 2005．the Engle ccefficient of rtlral house- holds has declined from 66．7％to 45．5％．At the same stage． per capita floor space has increased from 8．1 t0 29．7 m‘ (China Statistic Yearbook 2006)．n他variety of family structure also took place when the society has been devel— oping．111e proportion of nuclear family has ascended and stem family declined,and the scale of family dwindled continuously(Chen．2000)．It is assumed that if the total population is constant，the decline of the family scale must increase the total number of families．which will cause the increase in housing land．Rural land-use paRem usually corresponds to the transition of regional socioeconomic development phase．From the lower to higher phase of economic development，the proportion of rural housing land among the increased new building land will decline gradually(Long，2005)．111e increase in population，the change of building structure and relative economic activity can stimulate rural houses mounting up(Subduing，2002)． And what going with the increase in rural houses is the expansion of rural settlements． ’ BY the end of 2004．the scale of rural settlements has amounted to l 6．5 million ha．about 4．85 times of town building land which is only 3．4 million ha．Going with the exaltation of urbanization,not only the scale of rural set Chinese Journal ofPopulatioth Resources and Environment 2008 V01．6 No．2 55 万方数据 Table 1 Rural population,housing and residential land in China during 1996-2004 Source：Population and housing data are from China Statistic Yearbook(2006)，the area ofrural settlements are quoted form Report about the Safe Condition ofthe National Territory Resources Analysis(2004-2005)． tlements is far exceeding the town’s scale，but also is anti-reduced and the average scale of villages became lar- ger,and the speed of increase is accelerating(Guo，2006)． According to the statistics，in 1985，the gross of 12iral set- tlements was 8．13 million ha．and the average area per vil． 1ager is 98 o(Zhong．2001)．111e gross expanded 16．456 million ha in 1996 and 16．556 million ha in 2004．and the average area reached 193 m‘in 1996 and 219 mz in 2004 (see Table 1)．But from 1996 to 2004．tIle ratal population reduced by 11％，which means that along with decreasing taral population．the scale of rural housing land still ex． panded．Much attention should be paid to this phenomenon． Ill t11is PaDer,some brief discussion will be made based on the survey in villages． 2 Research area and data The research area in this paper lies in the north of Jiaolai River,southwest of Pingdu County,Shandong Province． Thirty villages were included with a gross area of about 46 knr．The main types of soil are Shajiang black and black clay．The average distance is about 30 km arIart from the county and 70 km from Qingdao City．The economic de． velopment in these village were weakly radiated by the city． In nlis area．household is the main unit of agficultural pro— duction，and the main type of agriculture is croD．So it be． 10ngs to the traditional agricultural production region．111e dada used in this paper include two parts：questionnaire investigation and statistic books．Six hundred and ninety- six farmer questionnaires have been got by random sample， and another 94 questionnaires about those people who are working in cities year-round but are the members of their villages were collected．Statistic dada include the land sur- vey results in 1991 and 2004．and Pingdu Statistic Year- book 1992 and 2005． 3 Effect of sooio-economy change A multiple regression model has been established to formulate the relationship between dependent variable—— the change rate of rural settlements sc面e(r力，and independent variables such as the rate of gross population change(纠，me rate of household quantity change lh_w概6．I，the rate of idle housing land(Ⅷ，the average area of housing land per family(A)，the pressure of farming land(p)，the rate of in· come change(nMw)and location of the village(／)．The rate of change was used to measure the change of various fac— tors from 1991 to 2004．The，肼讲was the ratio of area of idle housing land and residentialland of the village in 2004． the P could be expressed by the ratio of per capita farming land in 1991 and 2004．and the l would be evaluated 2 if a main road cross the residential land．1 if a main toad get across the residential land from one side．and 0 if the resi— dentialland don’t adjacent with a main road．The result of regression carl be seep．from Rmle 2． 。 It can be seen from the result of regression that the rate 56 Chinese Journal ofPopulation,R髑m蝴粕d En“∞nm伽t 2008 vbI．6 No．2 of gross population change，the rate of households quan- tity change，the pressure of farming land，and the location 万方数据 Table 2 Result of regression about the change of housing land (samples=3们 Independent variables Coefficient Standard error Source：Pingdu Statistic Yearbook(2005，1992)，Report of land re- source survey ofPingdn County,Shandong Province(1991)，Report of land use status survey and data·base construction of Pingdu County, Shandong Province(2004)，questionnaires collected from 30 villages． Note：‘‘significant at the level l％and’significant at the level 5％． of the village have remarkable influences oll the expan． sion of ruraI residential land．but the pressure of farming land shows a negative relationship．The regression result means that the speed of population growth positively re- lates with the expansion．though the absolute amount of the population in也e village was decreasing．The slower the population declines．the quicker the residential land expands．The general view is that if farmland is limited,the opportunity cost of using it to other usage will be higher． But the result was contrary with the academic iudge．The causes maybe consist of the following aspects．1)Among these 30 villages．the minimum farmland per capita in 1 99 1 was 0．142 ha and the maximum is 0．298 ha．but in 2004 the minimum is 0．1 59 ha and the maximum is 0．3 12 ha．Under the condition that per capita land area is comparatively abundant，one probability is that peasants have a thick skin to the decreasing arable land due to the expansion of rural senlements．21 It has been paid much attention that the average farmland has increased bv 8％from l 99 l to 2004。 and during the same phase unused land has reduced bv 68％．which means that a lot of unused land has been con- vetted into other use in the past years．When a village’s arable land inereases more than others．the quantity of an． used land and farmland that has been changed into building land will be less．This is also consistent with the regression result about the change of l Rral settlements scale and the pressure of farming land．n忙change of households has a remarkable effect．Under the given frame of land institution in China，households are the only legal entity to get a plot to build house in countryside．When the scale diminished and the household gross increased,the scale of housing land must mount up．Building a road Call bring great con- venience to the residents．People always choose to build a new house near a road．This trend can strengthen the ex． pansion of residentialIand．Take D village as an example． because the road which lies on the west of the village was rebuilt in 1990．from 1990 to 2006．the center ofthe village has moved towards the road and caused the old part of this village becoming empty gradually(see Figs．1 and 2，these two figures were drawn based on the planning map of D village and the time of building and dismantling houses)．It was found that the dependent variable has insignificant rig．1 House distribution ofD village in 1990 Chinese Journal ofPopulation．gesotaces and Environment 2008 V01．6 No．2 57 万方数据 Fig．2 House distribution of D village in 2006 pertinence with the rate of income change，the average area of housing land per family and the rate of idle housing land． This can be explained that income difference between these villages is not very obvious．Despite the difference of av- erage area of housing land per family in different village， within a village the area of housing plot was invariable commonly at different stages，so it is not significant．Not· withstanding the unremarkable of the regression result， among the 30 villages，the highest rate of idle land ac- counted for 23．8％and the average rate was 5．2％．The abandoned land can raise the scale of residentialland con． sequentially． 4[fleets offarmer s view on land property right One family multi-house is another important cause of turnl settlements expansion．Among 59 1 valid question- naires of farmers，on average per household，the number of persons is 3．99．the area of housing land is 247 mz．and the number of housing plots is 1．4 1 which is higher than the law rule．This means that compared with the law rule．rural settlements have exceeded the index about 29％．It is easy to comprehend why the phenomenon of one family multi．house is ubiquitous through farmers view on hous． mg Iand property fight． According to Constitution and Land Management Law, rural land is owned by the collectivitY,which means that the member of the collectivity has no right to own one plot that belongs to himself．But there are some differences between housing land and farmland．Farm iand contract always has a fixed time．When the contract is fallen in．the land will be redistributed according to the change of popu— lation．But housing land has no time Iimit of use．Once a 58 chine∞Joumal ofPopukian’黜舯mces叩d En“ro咖即t 20惦V01．6 No．2 household acquired a plot the family can use it as long as he can were it not for disaster or country expropriation．It can be seen from Table 3 that among the villagers who farm in their villages．54．5％consider the housing land as their own and 40．9％consider that the plot property be— longs to the state．and only 4．5％eonsider that it belongs to the collectivity．First，to apply a plot should be authorized by the village committee，but the final decision should be made by the local government，the village committee only takes subaltern function．So some people would think that the land belongs to the state．Second，to acquire a housing land should pay some costs sometimes such as land use fee， arable land tax and so on．But in the peasants eyes．no mater what kind and how much fee they have paid，when they have paid for it，the plot belonged to his family．And once the housing land was acquired by the family,they can use the plot without time limit and never pay for it any more．This may be the most important reason for people considering the plot as private．Among these 94 off-farm workers．8 1．9％think that the housing land belongs to themselves．The farmers would like to consider it as private more．because the housing land has the same feature with the arable land．and it provides the last ensuring function to these people．In addition，the building on the plot is the Table 3 Farmers view on the ownership of housing land Homing land Farmers Rural out-workers belongs to Frequency Proportion(％)Frequency Proportion(％) 万方数据 private estate and the indivisibility of house and land also can make the farmers consider the plot ownership as per- soual． Owning the same viewpoint as the farmers，most out．workers take for that they have the right to rent．sell and mortagage the plot，and also the plot can be inherited by their offspring even if their offspring no longer register in the village．591 farmers attended an investigation of view on housing land right parcel．554 farmers chose hav． ing the right to rent and sale。accounting for 93．7％of total farmers investigated；only 37 rejected to have the right．559 farmers chose having the right to mortagage，accounting for 94．6％：only 32 reject the fight．554 farmers chose hav． ing right to inherit when offspring no longer as the member of the collectivity,accounting for 93．6％。only 37 farmers rejected the right．When it comes to rural out-workers’ views on housing land right parcel，8 1 rural out-workers chose having the right of rent an